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From 2022, plastic shopping bags will no longer be allowed in German supermarkets. The Bundestag has approved a corresponding ban.
Plastic bags with a wall thickness of 15 to 50 micrometers are affected by the ban; These are the standard bags that you normally get from the box. The exceptions are thin plastic bags, such as those found in the produce department.
On Wednesday, the Bundestag’s Environment Committee, with the votes of the coalition factions, adopted an amendment by the parliamentary groups CDU / CSU and SPD, which provides for an extension of the transition period to January 1, 2022. This it should make it easier for retailers to deplete their existing stocks of plastic bags. Originally, only a six-month transition period was planned.
“The plastic bag is the epitome of the waste of resources,” the German press agency quotes the Federal Minister of the Environment, Svenja Schulze (SPD), who initiated the ban on sales. “Good alternatives are shopping baskets, washable cloth bags for fruits and vegetables, and reusable boxes for produce from the fresh produce counter.”
For WWF, however, the ban is only symbolic. According to the dpa, the environmental organization announced that only one percent of German plastic consumption corresponded to plastic bags.
AfD and FDP vote against the ban
AfD and FDP voted against the ban. They see the measure as an unjustified intervention in the market without demonstrable benefits for the environment. According to dpa, AfD MP Andreas Bleck noted, among other things, that voluntary regulation of the consumption of plastic bags in Germany has been reduced by almost two-thirds in just a few years.
